3. ALBANIAN OFFICIALS ABOUT KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

The Yugoslav-Albanian relations are traditionally
burdened by the active interference of the Republic of Albania in the
internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its territorial
claims in relation to Kosovo and Metohija and other parts of the republics
of Serbia and Montenegro, its unreserved support to the ethnic Albanian
separatists and terrorists and its paternalistic attitude to the Albanian
national minority in the FR of Yugoslavia.

The Republic of Albania is conducting such a policy
continuously on the basis of an intensive and aggressive anti-Yugoslav
diplomatic and propaganda activity, particularly in the UN, OSCE and other
international organisations and forums.

With the onset of the Yugoslav crisis, the relations
between the FR of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Albania sunk to the
lowest level because in giving its support to the disintegration processes
in the SFRY, Albania negated the existence of the FR of Yugoslavia as a
personality in international law, insisting on the thesis that the
province of Kosovo and Metohija is not an integral part of the Republic of
Serbia and that it has the right of self-determination.

The anti-Yugoslav and anti-Serbian policies backed up by
an orchestrated media campaign, demonstrated the characteristics of
hysterical propaganda from time to time, particularly after the unilateral
lowering of the diplomatic representation to the level of chargé
d'affaires in June 1992 and its recognition of the so-called Republic of
Kosovo "as a sovereign and independent state".